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We're all familiar with that guy who gets burned out on his game and makes a very public and lengthy rant as to why he's quitting on the official forums. But what happens when a developer does the same thing to a larger audience? Today we found out, as former LEGO Universe dev Ryan Seaburywrote an open letter saying why he left NetDevil -- and why he'll never work on MMOs again.

Seabury cites four reasons: that the "MMO" label has lost its meaning, it takes too long and is too stressful to develop new games, it's difficult to play around with creative concepts, and the market is trending toward indie titles anyway. He left to start up END Games Entertainment so that he and others of a similar mind could indulge in "a ridiculous variety of game ideas" instead of treading the waters of the status quo.

His letter is largely upbeat as he focuses on the joys of game development and play, and he thinks that it's high past time studios break out of old mindsets to embrace the new: "We have come to a point where the game concept trumps such insignificant bullet points, and global social connectivity is a given. From a creative standpoint, this is fantastic. Ideas are king once again; the industry feels as vibrant to me as the golden nostalgia years I experienced as a kid growing up through the coin-op and early console eras, except we've finally ditched the nerd-in-basement stigma."

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end-gamesend-games-entertainmentindiekotakulegolego-grouplego-universenetdevilopen-letterryan-seaburyTue, 24 May 2011 13:00:00 -0400319|19948759http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/14/not-so-massively-extra-an-interview-with-vorp-developer-end-ga/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Massively&ncid=rss_semi
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/14/not-so-massively-extra-an-interview-with-vorp-developer-end-ga/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/14/not-so-massively-extra-an-interview-with-vorp-developer-end-ga/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Massively#comments
When we were first introduced to the sci-fi Asteroids-esque shooter Vorp!, we didn't really know what to make of it. It's a Facebook game, but it has action-based gameplay and shiny graphics. It has a singleplayer survival mode but also has multiplayer components and uses Facebook's social tools. As the game is still in the alpha stage, gameplay is also still under development, and details of how the multiplayer components work are thin on the ground. We contacted the game's developer END Games to get the details on the upcoming title, its multiplayer aspects, and what the future holds for Vorp!'s development.

Massively: Does survival mode contain any multiplayer?

END Games: Survival mode is singleplayer-only currently, but we have been toying around with cooperative game modes. In the meantime, we're about to add some new AI variety to survival mode, and of course you can always compete with your friends on the leaderboards for most kills in the time limit.

Skip past the cut to read the rest of this interview and find out more about Vorp! and its development.